Doom (Apple Macintosh)

The Apple Macintosh line of computers received ports of The Ultimate Doom, Doom II, and Final Doom between 1995 and 1996, each of which were sold as separate products. The porting work was performed by Lion Entertainment, Inc., under license from id Software and with GT Interactive as distributor.

The versions of Doom for Apple Macintosh are informally often referred to as MacDoom.

History
After the initial release of Doom on December 1993 for MS-DOS, the game would be steadily ported to other systems over the following years, with Linux Doom appearing in 1994. The Apple Macintosh line of computers, however, would not receive any ports of the games until 1995. The final version of the Official Doom FAQ, dated December 10, 1994, states that id Software had found a team to work on porting the game to the platform, and was expecting a beta version soon. The absence of a major first person shooter franchise such as Doom on the Macintosh allowed for a different franchise, Marathon by Bungie Software, to become very popular on the platform upon its release on December 21 of that year.

The first version of any Doom game to appear on the Macintosh was the port of Doom II, released on June 27, 1995. This meant that Doom II appeared on the Mac before its predecessor did, as the original game was never ported to the Macintosh. However, a port of The Ultimate Doom re-release was brought over to the Macintosh in December of 1995, bringing over all content of the original game to the platform, plus its new Thy Flesh Consumed exclusive episode. Both ports were carried out by Lion Entertainment, a Texas-based company that was contracted by id Software specifically for the job. The Master Levels for Doom II were also ported to the Macintosh later that year. The third and last classic Doom entry to appear on the Macintosh was Final Doom, which was released on December 4, 1996.

Features
The Macintosh port of Doom, unlike the equivalent Doom95 for PCs, is integrated tightly with the operating system, with ability to be launched from the Finder, a menu bar, and custom command key shortcuts for various in-game menu options. Messages given by the game, such as the question asked when the player requests to quit, are actual Mac OS dialogs with the Doomguy's face for an icon.

In addition to the PC's low/high detail toggle, the Macintosh adds support for 640x400 resolution as a "large graphics" mode. There is no support for aspect ratio correction, however, so the game will appear slightly flattened on the Macintosh's square-pixel display relative to its appearance on the PC.

Rather than supporting MUS, music is played from a set of external MID! files (a -specific form of MIDI) stored in a Music folder alongside the game's WAD file and executable. Some of the MIDIs contain discrepancies between repeats of the same song.

During the special start-up credits sequence, a built-in frontend can be launched by pressing the S key, for configuring multiplayer games, adding WAD files, warping to various levels, and controlling other options.

Network multiplayer is supported over and  protocols.

The port notably lacks the ability to record demos, though it can play them back correctly.

System requirements
The Macintosh port had the following minimum system requirements:
 * Motorola 68040 or PowerPC processor
 * Mac OS 7.1 or up (not compatible with, requires emulation or use of Classic Environment).
 * 8 MB RAM
 * 18 MB hard drive space for optimal performance; the games could run off the CD-ROM, but without music and with framerate issues.
 * 8-bit graphics mode
 * 2x CD-ROM drive for installation

Trivia

 * When its proprietary bootloader was cracked in 2019, it was found out that the obscure and rare console is capable of playing the Macintosh version of Doom, albeit at low graphical detail and at 70% screen size.